As is the case with the alkali metals, Sir Humphry Davy tends to dominate the history of this group. In 1808, Davy used an electrolytic method to isolate magnesium, calcium, strontium and barium. Compounds of magnesium and calcium, however, have been known for thousands of years. Magnesia was known to the ancient Greeks in the silicate, talc, while the calcium mineral, gypsum, was used in mortars by both the Egyptians and the Romans. Tutankhamun's tomb, for example, was plastered with a gypsum-based substance.
Beryllium was discovered in 1798 by the French scientist, Louis Nicolas Vauquelin, following study of the beryllium minerals, beryl and emerald. Radon, a radioactive element, was the last of the alkaline earth metals to be discovered. Its chloride was isolated by Pierre and Marie Curie in 1898.
